A Poem: Tomorrow is Not Promised. Love Today

While flying over the Atlantic upon my return from Puerto Rico, I had a bit of a morbid thought. “I could be dead soon. ”

It was true. Any one of us on that plane could have become a news story. Or even when we got off the plane into the taxi, we could have met our death. So I wrote this poem to capture the futility of our arguments and grudges in light of the gift of loving one another.

Any moment from now
The fire you and I feel
Toward each other
Will be a stratus cloud
Our words will return
To the dust with us
You will not remember
Why you were so angry
And I will forget the color red
It is possible
That this cataclysmic interaction
is one of few
compared to other exchanges of energy
Namely, Love
We will be dead any moment from now
While we still live, let us love

Let us make this one count.

Five days later, I lost a dear friend in her battle against cancer. We hadn’t talked in about two months. I was honoring her space as she underwent countless surgeries and treatments. Upon hearing about her death I remembered our last conversation. We had had a slight disagreement. She was offended. And so was I. But we chose to talk it out. We gave up our rights to be right. We listened to one another, and then before we hung up the phone, we said, “I love you”.

Admittedly, my ego was still a little bothered by the conversation because defending oneself is automatic. But I was happy that she cared enough about the relationship to talk with me about it. And now knowing I will not have another chance to speak with her again, I’m grateful for that moment.

What are you angry about and will it matter when you have no more breath to argue?